Build your own CRM (and make it fit your business for once)
Short answer: You can build your own CRM without code by describing your business to an AI app builder. With Alori, you type what you sell, who your customers are, and how a job moves from lead to paid, and you get a working CRM you can open in the browser. You change it by asking in chat, and your data stays in the hosted database behind that project.
New to prompting? Read how to describe your business to an AI app builder before you start.
Why most CRMs don't fit service businesses
Popular CRMs were designed for sales teams: leads, deals, pipelines, quotas. A service business thinks in customers, properties, jobs, quotes, visits, and invoices. So owners either force their business into "deals" or give up and go back to a spreadsheet.
What to put in your CRM
Before you build, answer five questions. They become your prompt.
- Who are your customers? Homeowners, property managers, businesses? One location or many?
- What do you track about them? Address, property details, equipment, preferences, how they found you.
- How does work flow? Example: call or form → quote → approved → scheduled → done → invoiced → paid → review. See quote to invoice without retyping for why that chain matters.
- Who uses it? Office, techs, sales, owner. What should each one see on their phone or laptop?
- What do you need to remember? Follow-up dates, last contact, whether you emailed a quote, whether you asked for a review (Alori does not send review requests for you; it helps you track them). For a simple review habit, see how to get more reviews.
Example prompt
"Build me a CRM for my roofing company. Customers are homeowners. Track the property address, roof age, insurance company, and claim number on each job. Stages: inspection, quote sent, signed, scheduled, completed, paid. Let me log calls, emails, and texts on the customer timeline. Show who owns each lead on the list."
Alori builds the customer list, the fields you named, job records with your stages, and a place to log communications. When you add quotes and invoices in the same app, your team can email them to customers from a send button (each recipient uses a small credit from your Alori balance). Texts, calls and Gmail are built in too, in one Conversations thread per customer. Online payments, client portals, and online booking are not built into the default modules yet. You can ask for more screens or reports in chat as you learn what the team needs. For what happens after you send that first prompt, read how Alori builds your app.
Then keep shaping it
The first version is a starting point. Ask for changes in plain English:
- "Add a field for the HOA name."
- "Add a follow-up date on quotes that are still waiting for an answer."
- "When a job is marked completed, show it on a list ready for invoicing."
- "Add a checkbox for whether we asked this customer for a review."
- "Help me load customers from a spreadsheet export: here are the column names."
Your CRM becomes the base for everything else
Customers, quotes, scheduling, and invoices you add in the same Alori app share one set of records. When you extend the app with another screen or module, it can use the customers and jobs you already have instead of starting from scratch. Many owners add scheduling once the customer list feels right.
Build vs buy
| Off-the-shelf CRM | Your own CRM on Alori | |
|---|---|---|
| Fits a service business | Often built for sales teams | Built from your workflow |
| Custom fields and stages | Often limited by plan | Anything you describe in chat |
| Often an add-on | Email quotes and invoices from your app; replies go to your account email; uses Alori credits per recipient | |
| SMS | Often an add-on | Two-way texts from a local number, in the customer's thread, with calls and Gmail |
| Your data | Rented | Stays in the hosted database for that project; ask the Alori team if you need to move it |
FAQ
Can I really build a CRM without code? Yes. You describe it in plain English, Alori builds it, and you change it the same way.
Can I import my existing customers? You can bring a spreadsheet export from your current tool. Ask Alori to map the columns and load the file, or enter records while you test the first version.
Can it send emails? Yes, for quotes and invoices when those modules are in your app and the customer has an email on file. Someone on your team taps send, the message goes out from your app name on Alori's mail domain (mail4.alori.dev), and replies go to your account email. Each recipient uses 0.01 credits from your Alori balance. Review requests and bulk campaigns are not built in. Appointment confirmations, “On my way” texts and reminders go out on their own.
Can it send text messages? Yes. Alori texts customers in both directions from a local number, with photos, quick replies and the whole thread on the customer record.
Are online payments, a client portal, or online booking included? Online booking is included: each team member shares a link per kind of appointment, and customers pick an open time. Online payments and a client portal are not live in the default modules yet. You can keep your current tools for those pieces.
Can my team use it on their phones? Yes. Apps work in the browser on any phone, and you can describe who should see which screens when you refine the app.
Still comparing options? Read renting software vs owning it or replace spreadsheets and whiteboards, step by step.